Give Away

A friend has an awesome give away on her blog. Check it out.

http://www.frugalmom.net/blog/2010/09/the-everything-freezer-meals-cookbook-giveaway-extravaganza/

What if HIs People Prayed??????

So I have had this thing on my mind for about a week and a half now...what if we as a nation came together and prayed! I mean...what if we all set our watches/clocks/cellphones the same time(no matter whether east coast, west coast, or in the middle) and stopped whatever we are doing and prayed. We could have to wake up, stop work, stop shopping, stop watching tv, whatever we are doing and prayed. How awesome would it be for millions of Christians all over America to take time out of there day to truly come together as the "Church Universal" and pray for our nation, for each other, for our leaders, for deliverance, for people to be saved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you imagine the joy it would bring our Heavenly Father and the effect it could have on our country.

Let's be honest...america is no longer a country that is "One Nation Under God" we are now a nation controlled by politicians and looking to many gods. Many Americans look to themselves and not a god at all! This hurts my heart. I heard a statistic today that Christians, on average, spend less than 3 minutes a day in prayer!!!!!!!!!!!! That doesn't shock most of us! In fact if we are honest to ourselves, we will realize that we are in that group! I know there are far more days that I am in that group than the small group that prayes like we should. Do any of us pray like we should??????

So now I have to wonder...how do I get the Christians in America to pray? Well it is going to start with this blog. I am going to post this blog on facebook and ask that all of you who read it send it to all the Christians you know! I am also going to start emailing people. I don't know if it will work, but God has told me to do this! So I am going to do it!

what now?? I have to set a date and time. How about November 15, 2009 at 9PM EST!

I am going to set this as my time to stop and pray...Will you join me?

Staying Strong through Trials

If you keep up with my other blog or with me on Facebook you know that right now I am going through a very difficult time. On June 23 I found out that I was pregnant. I was ecstatic! It took us 3 years to conceive Carly and we had not been doing anything to prevent getting pregnant again since Carly was 3 months old. We had actually talked about adopting if we weren't pregnant again by the time Carly turns 3 (May 7, 2010). This seemed like God's answer to a lot of prayers.

Because Zach is a pastor and Iam a stay at home mom, we don't make a lot of money. When I found out I was pregnant, we went to get me on Medicaid. That process takes a little bit of time, especially because we needed to change our license to our new address. When I called the Dr.'s office they put my appt. out pretty far to give me time to get my medicaid situated.

The day we went into the office we were under the impression that I was 13 weeks pregnant. We were super excited b/c we knew we would have an ultrasound and get to see our child. When the Dr. did the ultrasound he said that we had to be seriously off by the dates b/c I was only showing 6 weeks. He explained that either it could be the dates were off or that there was a chance that something was wrong. We made an appt to come back in 2 weeks to check again.

After 2 weeks and 18 hours we found out that our unborn child was no longer there. We now have to prepare for me to have surgery tomorrow to rid me of the leftover tissue. Because I am a nurse, I know that tomorrow the the specimen container will be marked "product of conception". Maybe this is too technical for you. If so stop reading now! I am serious. Tomorrow,I will go into a hospital and get an IV put into my arm. They will make me wear an embarassing gown so they can do what they need to. I will be wheeled into a cold, sterile room. They will put a plastic mask over my face. If a certain anesthesiologist is there he will say, "If it smells like plastic, that's b/c it is". They will inject my veins with a white liquid called Propofol. I will go to sleep. They will position me (not in a fun way) and prep me for surgery. I will skip the rest b/c no one wants to know...Let me just say that it will not be plesant and I am glad I will be asleep. Then I will wake up and no longer be pregnant.

It would be very easy for me to get angry with God right now. To blame Him for the heartache that Zach and I are experiencing. However I realize that God is in control and not out to harm me. He created us to love Him and be loved by Him.

This is truly evident in the LOVE He has shown me using my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have felt a huge outpouring of love from everyone around me.

So I choose to praise Him in the storm.
"You give and take away, You give and take away, My heart will choose to say, Lord, Blessed Be Your Name"

Heaven

So as I stated earlier in a post, our church (washingtonavenue.org) started studying Heaven.

I want you to close your eyes...well read on first and then close your eyes. Picture the place where you feel the safest, the most comfortable, the best. The place where you feel the absolute happiest! Then think about a place that is about a million times better!!!! Then maybe you can start, and just start, to get a picture of Heaven. It's not a place where we will just float around with wings, a halo and a harp. It will be a place of rejoicing and love and FUN!!!!

If you have ever been at church or anywhere else for that matter and felt the presence of God ( I mean really feel it all around you), you might can start to feel the joy that you will feel once you get to Heaven.

I know some of you are thinking that you have never felt this or maybe you don't know what I am talking about at all when I say Heaven. Well to you I would say, "come to my church this sunday and find out what it is all about". Not feeling the whole come to church thing, well check out the church's website and from there go to Chuck Bridges blog. He will be talking about Heaven there as we talk about it at Church.

Have more questions? Just comment to me and I will get back to you!!

I hope to see you in Heaven one day!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms reading this!!!! Mom's deserve so much more than we get.

I was thinking back to three years ago. That was my last Mother's Day before I became a mom. I just want to tell you that that was one of the most difficult days I have ever been through. That morning I was singing with the Praise Team at my church at that time. One of the songs had a line in it about God providing more than I could ever want. I couldn't sing that line. I just broke down crying on stage! I hated Mother's Day!!! I mean I really, really HATED Mother's Day. It reminded me that I was not a mother and possibly never would be. Let me tell you that if you never suffered infertility, you will not understand what I am saying. That holiday is the most horrible day in the life of a woman suffering infertility. For any of you out there who are suffering now, I pray that God will be with you and that He will wrap His loving arms around you and comfort you. I also pray that if it be His will that He would bless you with children just like He did for Sarah, Hannah and Me!!!!

Now I am a mother. So, Mother's Day is a time of rejoicing for me!! I am so thankful that I have been blessed with my daughter and her love and laughter. You see, that last Mother's Day in 2006...I told God that I would not come to church on Mother's Day again until I WAS A MOM! I could not deal with that pain any more. Now I joyfully to thank Him for His gift. You see nothing I did caused me to become pregnant! That was all God!!!! Now, I know that I have job to do. I have to raise my daughter in a way that is pleasing to Him! I have to give her daily to Him! (Thankfully, I don't have to literally leave her at the church in the way Hannah did.) I do raise her in the church, though, both literally and not. This is the most important job I will ever have! I take it seriously.

I want to take a moment and thank my Momma. She was always there for me. She raised me right and showed me how to love the Lord. I am blessed that God gave me to her. I could not think of a better momma out there. She was at every sporting event, chorus event, everything. I could count on her to show up and cheer me on in whatever I did. She is the Best Friend I have ever had. I can still count on her any time I need. I did not always treat her right, but she loved me anyway! Thank you Momma. I love you!

Change, change, change

Things change all the time. Some things I want to change do change and other things don't. So what do we do with this? How do we plan for change to happen? I mean, 5 weeks ago I had no idea that Zach, Carly and I would be leaving Johnsonville and JFBC and moving back to the upstate and going to WAC. There is a whole lot of change there.

As I look back over the last year, I realize that we have had a lot more change than I even realized. It started when we sold the single wide mobile home that we were living in and moved to a town home in Central. Then the church we were attending and working at at the time broke up and left us without a church home and without that job. Then, a few months later we moved to Johnsonville and Zach started his job at Johnsonville First Baptist Church. So we were in a new town, new house, new church, and we knew NO ONE. That is a BIG CHANGE for both of us and Carly.

Now we are back to the upstate and another new church. As we drove down Hwy 123 from the church to my inlaws house, I broke down crying Sunday evening. It was as if it had just sunk in that once again we were being uprooted and placed some where else new. Right now we don't have a house so we are living with Zach's parents. Thus, there will be more change when we find a house and move into it.

So is this the life of a minister's wife? Will God keep calling us to change and move and go? IS THIS WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR????

I always said I would NEVER marry someone in the military or go into the military myself because I didn't want to move every four years. I guess God showed me!!!!! I will have moved basically 5 times in one year by the time we find a house and move in.

So what attitude do I take with all this? I could get angry or be upset...OR I could realize that, as Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God is in control and He plans to prosper us whereever He takes us.

And as my awesome new pastor pointed out last night, This world is not my home!!!!! My home is so much better than Orangeburg, Clemson, Seneca, Central, Johnsonville, Greenville, even Hawaii!!!! My home awaits me when God calls me to go there. In John 14, vs 2-3 states, "My Father's house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

The Home that awaits me is awesome!!!! If you are interested in learning about this home and what you need to do to go with me one day then join us at Washington Avenue Church starting May 17 on a journey through "The Finish Line".

http://www.washingtonavenue.org/

Tough Sunday

So today was tough. Zach had to make the announcement to the whole church today that we are leaving. Just to be totally honest, this was one of the hardest things I've sat through in a church. Like I said in my last blog, ministry isn't easy. We were loved on by people who told us how much we meant to them in such a short amount of time. It made me think about our time here. I think that maybe the thing I (me not Zach) really brought to Sunday mornings was freedom in worship.

You see I grew up in a traditional Southern Baptist church. We sang the hymns with the organ and piano and sat and stood depending on what the worship leader asked us to do. Not until I was in college did I ever truly worship. What does that look like? Well I believe to truly worship one has to free themself up to the Holy Spirit. This can't be done by just showing up on Sunday mornings and singing music. You have to be with God throughout the week to really worship.

Now freedom in worship comes when you have been with God throughout the week and you let yourself be taken in with the music. You follow where the Spirit leads you. Whether that means that you raise your hands, clap, dance, stand...whatever...you just go with it!!!!! There are times when you just know that God wants you to stand and raise your hands as high as you can and sing with all your might, what do you do? Do you sit in your seat? Do you clasp your hands together because you don't want to raise them? What do you do?

What do i do? I try (but don't always suceed) to just go with the Spirit. I dance and raise my hands...I sing without abandon!!!!!!

Today, I was thanked for this. i was thanked for showing some of the people in my church that it is okay to do this no matter who is watching. Because when you boil it all down...who are worshiping for? The people in your church or God Almighty!!! I chose God Almighty!!!!!!